Taffarel Praises Alisson’s Mental Strength

Brazil goalkeeper coach Claudio Taffarel says that Alisson’s successful fight for the number 1 jersey at Roma shows his immense mental strength. Taffarel, a World Cup winner with the Seleção in 1994, says Alisson is one of the best in the world.

Alisson left Internacional for Roma in 2015, but was behind Arsenal loanee Wojciech Szczesny in the pecking order until 2017. However, Alisson held onto the number 1 shirt for his country during this time.

“His great strength and characteristic is his personality,” Taffarel said. “This is precisely what helped him to overcome this difficulty of staying on the Rome reserve bench. Maybe it was difficult at first, but he did his best in training, he knew he had to prepare.

“This strength helped him to stay focused, he knew he had to play well in the Brazilian national team. The confidence we gave him made a lot of difference. The normal thing would be to say that because he was not playing there he could not play here.

“But no. We felt very safe that he was giving the maximum there. Alisson had impressive performances with us. I worked in Rome, I think he is among the best goalkeepers in the world.

“He had great growth. We knew he would have this growth and had faith on him when he was not first choice at Roma.”